China in Africa: Friend or foe?

In the first of a series on China's new relationship with Africa, the BBC's Adam Blenford looks at how their economic interests coincide.

The next piece looks at the Chinese firms rebuilding the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

In almost every corner of Africa there is something that interests China.

The continent is rich in natural resources that promise to keep China's booming, fuel-hungry economy on the road.

There is copper to mine in Zambia, iron ore to extract in Gabon and oil to refine in Angola.

In other countries less blessed by natural resources, Chinese companies have spied trading and investment opportunities.

Africa's need for new and better roads, school buildings, computer networks, telecoms systems and power generation has opened a lucrative window of opportunity for Chinese firms.

The new Sino-African dynamic can leave the West ill at ease, reviving memories of Europe's colonial domination in Africa and drawing complaints that low Chinese bids are freezing out Western companies.

China never imposes its own will on African countries, nor interferes in the domestic affairs of African countries
Yang Xiao Gan
Chinese embassy, Addis Ababa
China also offers "no-strings" aid, a marked contrast to Western donors who impose conditions on aid and tie trade sweeteners to human rights issues.

Critics say China's approach has emboldened unsavoury governments, allowing them to ignore Western calls for reform, safe in the knowledge that Beijing will take up the slack.

Sudan, with its vast oil reserves, is the number one recipient of Chinese investment, and sells some two-thirds of its oil to Beijing. As a result, China has been criticised for its links with a government ostracised by many for its role in the ongoing crisis in Darfur.

Elsewhere, stories of anti-Chinese unrest in Zambia and the killing of nine Chinese oil workers by rebels in Ethiopia's Ogaden region have focused Beijing's attention on the price it might have to pay for its African adventure.

Beyond the stereotype

The Chinese insist they are not interested in dominating Africa.

Instead China says it seeks a "harmonious world", an evolution of its Cold War search for "peaceful co-existence", and it wants to coax African countries along the path towards development.

Instead of top-down aid projects, Chinese companies seek profits in Africa as they bequeath the continent a new infrastructure - one that will more than likely be used to increase trade with China.

"China consistently respects and supports African countries," Yan Xiao Gang, China's economic attache in Ethiopia, told the BBC.

"It never imposes its own will on African countries, nor interferes in the domestic affairs of African countries."

Ethiopian officials speak of "owning" their country's development, but do admit that major contracts usually go to Chinese firms because of their ability to keep costs down.

Many Chinese firms employ large numbers of local workers but wages remain low. However, there is evidence that workers are learning new skills because of the availability of Chinese-funded work. Taking advantage of low labour costs, the Chinese are also building factories across Africa.

Observers say Beijing appears ready for the long haul in Africa.

"For China to become a major power, it needs to continue its double-digit economic growth of recent years. For this it needs energy and markets," Prof M Venkataraman of the University of Addis Ababa told the BBC.

Those markets are proving receptive, and trade with the continent is famously booming - up to $40bn in 2004, a tenfold increase in under a decade.

Yet most African countries now have a growing trade deficit with China, in spite of favourable tax-free trading agreements. Ethiopian exports to China reached $132m (£63m) in 2006, a figure dwarfed by the value of Chinese imports of $432m (£206m).

"It is not clear what the long-term effect of the Chinese projects will be," said Mr Venkataraman.

"But the facts are very clear - there are going to be benefits to both sides. China is going to remain in this continent for a very long time."

Potent symbols

The China-Africa relationship shot to attention in November 2006 when 48 African heads of government attended a forum in Beijing.

China's capital was festooned with images of exotic Africa for the occasion. Speeches were made and deals were struck.

Tsegab Kebebew, a senior official in Ethiopia's foreign ministry, was in Beijing for the meeting. One year on, he remains enthused about the relationship.

"This is a new strategic partnership. There is no colonial history between Africa and China, so they are well received here," he told the BBC.

"There is no psychological bias against the Chinese."

In fact China has a history of involvement in Africa, and undertook major aid projects in the 1960s and 1970s. Among Beijing's gifts was a railroad linking Zambia and Tanzania, now scheduled to be rebuilt by a Chinese company.

China's gifts to modern-day Africa will soon include a gleaming new conference centre at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa - a symbol of Beijing's commitment to African development, says Mr Yan of the Chinese embassy.

There is symbolism in the shops, too.

With Ethiopia only now marking the turn of its millennium, seven years after the rest of the world, the country is in the grip of a 12-month millennium frenzy.

Banners adorn public buildings and souvenirs are on sale in many shops. The government hopes the outbreak of national pride will spur Ethiopia to a new age of prosperity.

Those browsing a local market for, say, a souvenir plate bearing the legend "Ethiopian Millennium 2000" would do well to turn the gift over and look underneath.

Embossed on the white plastic is a phrase already familiar to all in the West: "Made in China".

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7086777.stm

Published: 2007/11/26 08:31:27 GMT

© BBC MMVII

China in Africa: Rebuilding Addis

In the second part of a special series on China's new relationship with Africa, the BBC's Adam Blenford reports on the new roads being built in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

The Chinese shun the limelight in Ethiopia's capital, but traces of them are rarely far away.

In Addis Ababa's largest market, shoppers pick through piles of Chinese-made shoes and imported underwear.

At the city's new vocational college, dozens of students are taking lessons in classrooms built with Chinese money. Inside government ministries and hospital offices, Chinese computer experts do their thing to bring Ethiopia's outdated IT networks into the 21st Century.

But it is on the city's roads - potholed, dusty and permanently under construction - where the Chinese influence is most pronounced.

Much of Addis Ababa is currently a mess of churned earth and drying concrete.

Major roads lie devastated by earth movers. Minibus taxis bump and grind their way over temporary road surfaces. A short journey in the midday sun can become a choking ordeal.

At first glance the construction sites seem an all-Ethiopian affair: local women haul huge rocks into place for local men to break them up with a pickaxe. Local surveyers take endless measurements.

But the real power lies elsewhere, with the well-dressed Chinese men standing slightly away from the dust and clatter.

Far from home and rarely off-duty, these are the road-builders quietly constructing a continent.

Modest means

At the age of 29, Sun Guicai has already spent four years in Africa.

Although his family lives in Beijing, Mr Sun only sees his wife for two or three months each year, when the African rains render construction impractical.

A veteran of construction projects in Uganda and Burundi, Mr Sun says he prefers the climate in Ethiopia, where he now finds himself in control of a major project with a large budget.

Smiling with his workers on site and joking with the Ethiopian engineers and designers contracted to him, Mr Sun speaks of his role in Africa with a certain zeal.

"I'm doing it for my company," he says, before adding: "And I'm doing it for my country."

Mr Sun's 5.8km road winds around one flank of Addis Ababa, passing the grand estates of the Kenyan and British embassies as it goes.

African people's thinking has already changed because of the Chinese
Sun Guicai
China Road and Bridge Corporation
His employers, the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), won the right to build the road by offering to complete the project for 160 million Ethiopian birr ($17.6m).

China's government sweetened the deal by offering 50m Chinese yuan ($6.7m) to the Ethiopian government, slightly more than one-third of the total cost.

Yet Mr Sun's means are modest, like those of his 15 Chinese staff. All of those working for CRBC lodge at the company's depot, a small compound right next to the road they are building.

Mr Sun himself sleeps on a small camp bed in the back of his office, which is lit by a flourescent strip and split in two by a flimsy curtain.

It is a disciplined, committed existence, far-removed from the lifestyles most European contractors would expect - and far cheaper.

Homes bulldozed

Money is also an issue for those in the path of Mr Sun's imported bulldozers.

With the widening of Addis Ababa's roads, thousands of ordinary people are being forced to leave their homes.

Felkech Yuhans has lived at her modest corrugated steel home for 18 years. Three generations of her family now live alongside her. For most of those years the small house was just one dwelling in the middle of a long row of homes.

Now Ms Felkech and her family have to move. They have no choice - two road-sized strips of freshly-dug earth now converge at her front door. Only the family stands in the way.

"I feel so sad, I don't know what I'm supposed to do," she says. There are stories in the neighbourhood of government compensation schemes, but few believe the cash will be enough to re-house families.

Many of those moving on have owned their small homes for years, and supplement their income by renting out rooms for a few extra birr. Now they will have to become tenants themselves.

Among the newly dispossesed is Addis Gazehagri, whose art studio has been dismantled to make way for the road.

"Because of this road there are many problems," he says. But he stops short of blaming all his woes on the Chinese.

"We don't really talk to them, but we think they want to help Ethiopia," Mr Addis says, even as his studio is dismantled around him.

Quid pro quo?

At the CRBC headquarters, Mr Sun insists his mission in Africa is a benevolent one.

"Transport is very important. If you want to develop your country you need to build good roads," he says.

"We are training the Africans to work. African people's thinking has already changed because of the Chinese."

Labourers now work harder, Mr Sun says, because they are paid extra if they finish more work.

But senior Ethiopians working on the Chinese-run road gang say the basic wage for labour, equivalent to about $2 per day, is not enough.

On site, standing next to a modern crossing the Chinese are building to replace a 102-year-old Russian-built bridge - the oldest in Ethiopia - Mr Sun says the millions China is contributing are a gift from Beijing.

Ethiopian designer Habtom Gebre smiles at his paymaster, but disagrees.

The cash is a loan, he says, touching on a delicate issue most in Ethiopia's government would prefer he left alone: "It will be repaid when the Chinese find oil in the south of Ethiopia."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7081530.stm

Published: 2007/11/27 00:59:12 GMT

© BBC MMVII

China's hunger for African minerals
By James Reynolds
BBC News, Hangzhou, eastern China

A dozen workers carrying metal poles stand in a factory warehouse.

Several wear camouflage caps on top of their blue uniforms.

A forklift truck heads towards them and drops off a huge white bag full of dust, minerals, and rocks. The workers pierce the bag, then hoist it onto a pile.

During the afternoon, they stack up dozens of bags onto a pile of hundreds more. The white bags contain copper and cobalt shipped in from Africa.

'Minerals equal stability'

The Huayou company processes the raw materials and then sells them on to other Chinese factories.

Africa is full of opportunities - it's just like China when we started opening up a few years ago
Li Xiao Dong
Huayou manager

"China is hungry for minerals and Africa has rich reserves of cobalt and copper," says Li Xiao Dong, who runs the factory.

"Africa is full of opportunities - it's just like China when we started opening up a few years ago."

Africa's minerals are vital for China. For the Communist Party the bags of minerals stacked up in the Huayou factory warehouse mean social stability.

China has a billion people who want a better life. They want to buy TVs, cars and fridges.

China simply does not have enough natural resources of its own to meet their needs.

So, in order to keep its people happy and stable, it has to get its raw materials - oil, copper, zinc, cobalt - from abroad. And Africa has what China needs.

'No strings attached'

Inside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, a dozen Communist Party officials face rows of African businessmen and ambassadors.

The African delegates sit to the left of a portrait of Chairman Mao.

The officials on stage each cut a thick red ribbon. Everyone applauds - including those who cut the ribbon.

This is the launch of a new project, the China-Africa development fund, designed to promote Chinese investment in Africa.

Chinese trade with Africa has been growing by 50% every year. Right now, it is worth $50bn (£25bn). By 2010, China will have overtaken the US and France as Africa's biggest trading partner.

The Communist state offers trade with no strings attached.

China appears to follow a simple rule: If you are an African country and you have a raw material that China wants, then China will do business with you, no matter what the West thinks of your government or your human rights record.

"In recent years there has been a rapid rise in co-operation between China and Africa," says China's Commerce Minister Bo Xilai in a speech to his African guests.

"This fund will drive China's investment in Africa to everyone's benefit," he says.

Superstore

You can see why China's trade with Africa matters so much by going to the Orient Home superstore in Beijing.

The shelves are full of products made from minerals that come from Africa - door handles, pipes, stoppers, locks, plugs, wires, cables, kitchen taps.

"I bought a bathtub," says one shopper at the checkout, "I don't care where the material comes from, so long as it's good quality."

Importing from Africa keeps China's shelves stacked; it fuels China's economic boom; and it keeps this country's consumers happy and quiet. The ruling Communist Party wants everything to stay this way.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6264476.stm

Published: 2007/07/03 10:33:54 GMT

© BBC MMVII